Geography and History Update

Wednesday, 11 June 2014

At those
days, pacific countries actually focus on polyculture where the natives plant
different kinds of crops for their source of food. In Kiribati our ancestors
always use to plant many different kinds of indigenous plants for the family
food as well. Nowadays, polyculture actually not even practiced by many pacific
islanders as they move to monoculture in terms of export oriented. The term
monoculture in agriculture refers to the cultivation of only one crop within a
wide area. Kiribati is comprised of 32 low lying coral atolls and it situated along
the equator. Monoculture is very important to Kiribati regarding financial
income to the country. Coconut plantation is one of the types of monoculture in
Kiribati where it helping the government to gain potential income from exporting
its products that made from copra.Coconut plantation in Kiribati is the type of
agricultural system that the government of Kiribati practically used nowadays.

Distribution,
Composition, structure and Abundance of plants.

The coconut trees
are the crops that found anywhere in all part of the country where it is one of
the types of monoculture agriculture because the natives only planted this type
of crop on the islands without planting other different indigenous species.
This may rather categorized under agroforestry because many other varies
indigenous species also found growing with coconut trees. The coconut trees are
grown all over the land where they sometimes planted by the natives but others
were can accidently growing without cultivation. Coconut trees are seen and
found everywhere on the island where they grow wildly with many indigenous
plants. The coconut trees are grown sequentially or in a structured way but
they also often seen not structured because they always grow accidently. Most
of the coconut trees are found abundantly in the middle of the land and just
grow scarcely in residential places. This type of agricultural activities
sometimes affect the lives of some indigenous plants species that grown within
the same ecosystem that coconut trees grow in where it can affect them to die
because the natives may cutting down these crops in order to make a clear
environment of coconut trees. According to Riikan, he stated that coconut trees
are still the same with people which they also need their surroundings to clear
in order to grow well. He also stated that if there are many small plants
growing near young coconut trees, they can affect them to grow unhealthy and unwell
therefore the natives may prefer to cut them down. According to the pictures
below, figure 1 actually describe the distribution of the coconut trees in
every part of Kiribati and figure 2 emphasize that there are many different
indigenous species that grow with coconut trees and these are pandanus trees (pandanus
tectorius), grasses, te uri (Guettarda speciosa), te mao (Scaevola taccada), te
ren (tournefortia argentea) and many others indigenous plants.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Coconut
plantation at Abaiang.Different plants species grow with coconut trees.

Source:
Google images

Impacts on communities
and species within both natural and cultural ecosystem

Monoculture
agriculture also having a desperate impact on the lives of communities and
species within both natural and cultural ecosystem. In Kiribati the destruction
of the bush is one of the way in which the natives always did to provide
limited spaces for planting coconut trees. Clearing the bush when burning it or
even when cutting down trees in an excessive amount for providing spaces for
this type of agricultural activity can actually affect the lives of organisms
that found living within that environment. Concentration on planting only one
crop can actually affect the lives of diverse species within that particular
ecosystem because they might not functioned well because there are no other
crops that they needed for their survival.

Figure
1Figure
2.

Example of
burning forestExample of cutting
down trees

Source: Google images

Analysis: According to
the two pictures above it shows the human activities to alter the forest
ecosystem. Figure 1 shows the forest being burning for providing spaces for the
monoculture while in Figure 2 it also shows the human activity when cutting down
trees to provide limited spaces for this type of agriculture system as well.
However, there are many diverse species found within the natural ecosystem so
for that reason monoculture actually affect the lives of these diverse species
to disappear because there is only one crop species introduced in this kind of
agricultural system. This could be destroy the lives of other species that
relied on those crops that already grown in the place that being practiced by
monoculture activities. The human modification to the environment like cutting
down trees or also made pond actually change the life cycle within the
environment because there are many species being destroyed when making things.

Major emphasis should be placed on
how the new monoculture systems have affected your agricultural biodiversity.

Monoculture
in Kiribati actually having a desperate situation on the agricultural
biodiversity or agro biodiversity. A key component of agricultural
intensification is monoculture, the cultivation of a single crop species in a
field. Farmers around the world have increasingly assumed monoculture to
achieve higher yields through economies of scale. However, monoculture having a
negative impacts on some scale of biodiversity. Monoculture having desperate
impacts on biodiversity where it provides a narrower range of habitat than
polyculture fields. Agricultural systems contain some dimensions of
biodiversity. Planned and Associated biodiversity are the two examples of
dimensions of biodiversity that found in agricultural systems. Planned
biodiversity is refers to the diversity of crops and animals that chosen by a
farmer for production while associated biodiversity refers to the
microorganisms like insects, birds, and other wildlife that both depend upon
and help maintain agro ecosystems. Reducing planned biodiversity to include
only one crop could be affects the composition and abundance of associated
biodiversity. For example, the balance of plants pests and their natural
enemies that may exist in polyculture fields can be disturbed in monoculture
systems which provide habitat for a narrower range of insects. The population
of insects such as bees, flies, moths, and birds which providing important
roles in pollinating and pest pressure services to crops also tend to be lower
or maybe they can disappear when monoculture system takes place.

Monoculture is absolutely having impacts on
the environment where it affects the lives of many different species that found
within a particular ecosystem. Introducing only one crop within a particular
ecosystem can actually affect the trophic levels of plants and animals that
living within that ecosystem. Trophic level shows how each plants and animals
get their nutrition for each of them. This explained by their interaction
between themselves to get their food supply. For example, plants are having
important roles to small insects like caterpillar, moth, flies and birds while
they also having an important role to the environment they grow in. Small
insects like caterpillar, flies, moth and birds also feed on plants while
plants used these small insects for pollinating. These small insects are called
pollinators where they helped to intermarry male and female plants. Destroying
many plants that grow within an ecosystem and introduced only one crop can
actually affect the life cycle within the ecosystem. The introduction
monoculture agriculture can actually affect the energy flow and the food chain.
Life for plants and animals based on energy so in this case the sun is a
primary source of energy on this planet. Plants and other producers turn light
into chemical energy.A food chain shows
an energy relationship. Plants used the sunlight to process its nutrition and
this is called photosynthesis. When an insect eats the plants, they get some
energy to survive and if the bird eats the insects the energy is transferred to
one more time. Therefore this shows that there is a great interaction between plants
and animals within the ecosystem. If one of these organisms disappears from the
food chain cycle then there might be an imbalance within the ecosystem. So as a
result plants and animals within the ecosystem might die and instantly
disappear. However, fertilizers and pesticidesused in monoculture also helped
to destroy organisms within the ecosystemwhere it deplete nutrient found in the soil, affect the water that used
for organismsand the people and also it
introduced invasive animals in the ecosystem because there are no animals that
responsible for killing these new species. For example, beetle. Beetle is an
invasive animal to the giant swamp taro in Kiribati because the natives used
such fertilizers and pesticides in this type of agricultural so at a result the
beetle exist and having a great impacts on the giant swamp taro because there
are no other animals species that responsible to fight against this type of
predator. This actually affects the lives of the giant taro to grow unhealthy.

Impacts on human food systems and
human health

Monoculture
in Kiribati actually affect the lives of the people of Kiribati especially
their food supplies. In Kiribati polycultural activities is not highly
practiced because the people always focus on harvesting coconut fruits for
their main source of income. The people were very busying planting young
coconut trees without planting other vegetables and fruits for their food
supply. According the World Health Organization (WHO) Kiribati is accounted to
be one of the top lists in having a highest mortality rate. This is because
they were being affected by the non-communicable disease that these lifestyle
diseases ariseas a result of eating fatty foods and meats. It is been reported
that the percent of mortality rate in 2010 is 69 % and thus like to increase
the next following years until this year 2014(WHO. 2010). The people of
Kiribati nowadays were used foreign foods for their main diet because they
don’t have fruits and vegetables to eat as they just focus on coconut
plantation without cultivation vegetables, fruits and other greenish leaves.
This where they definitely affected by some of the non-communicable diseases
such as coronary heart disease, cardiovascular strokes,
hypertension, obesity, diabetes and some forms of cancer because there is a
great consumption of foods that contains a high percent of fat, salt and sugar.
Therefore, monoculture agriculture actually affect the human food in Kiribati
whereas the natives do not access to eat vegetables and fruits while it also
affect most the people to die because of eating unbalance diet which is western
fatty foods and meats.

Whether
there are new weeds, pests of disease that have negatively affected the new
monocultural system and what the negative impacts have been.

In Kiribati, there seems to be no kinds of weeds or pests
diseases that affected the coconut plantation in Kiribati. However, only the
giant swamp taro that has been affected by a new invasive animal which is
beetle. Beetle is one of the new species that found having desperate impacts on
the lives of giant swamp taro in Kiribati. The beetle affects the lives of
giant taro where it feeds on the trunk of the giant taro and this caused this
crop to grow unhealthy. The main disease that actually affected the coconut
plantation in Kiribati is climate change where it affected the coconut to grow
unhealthy because there is an increase in hot temperate compared with those
days. However, during the past decade fertilizers is increasingly used for
coconut trees in Kiribati but nowadays the Ministry of Agriculture actually
forbade the use of fertilizers because climate change affect the lives of
coconut trees to die(Timea.I. 2014).

Impacts
of monoculture on indigenous and traditional knowledge systems

Monoculture in Kiribati actually affects the people as well
with their own traditional knowledge system. In Kiribati, the people having
their own skills in planting coconut trees and other indigenous species of
plants. The existence of monoculture actually changes the people in a way that
they are more adapting to foreign skills on planting their own crops. This is
more concerned to using such fertilizers in this agricultural system rather
than referring to such traditional skills in providing their crops with
suitable foods to feed on. According to Riikan he stated that the people of
Kiribati using different types of plants in their cultivation. Its means that
the natives might cut the leaves of indigenous plants or used rotten leaves
when planting their indigenous crops. For example, when planting the coconut
trees the natives might find rotten leaves of teuri (GuettardaSpeciosa) and place it under the young
coconut trees. Plants and trees are also very important regarding our
traditional culture in fishing. According to Rouba he stated that plants and
trees such as teitai tree (calophyllum, Alexandrian laurel) is very important
as it shows us the time to go to fish and get a lot of catching. Our ancestors
believed that if this plant produces its flowers then it was the time for
people to go fishing because there are plenty fish in the sea. When the monoculture
came our culture seems to start to fade away because our indigenous plants are
being destroyed because of planting only one type of crop. The people of Kiribati
also having their traditional culture in planting diverse indigenous plants.
According to Teketa he stated that the natives used their own traditional
weather seasoning which are Teaumeang and Teaumaiaki. He also stated that the
people preferred to plant crops during Teaumeang season because this season
brought a lot of rain to the land where
this actually help their crops to be growing well. However, they do not even
plant their crops during Teaumaiaki season because this season brought dried
weather.

The impacts of modern monocropping on
food, health, energy and livelihood security.

Modern monocropping having a desperate situation on the
food, health, energy and livelihood security of the people. Monocropping
activities actually having an impacts on the food production because this type
of agricultural system was mainly focus on planting only one crop without
concerning on other types of crops. This is having a potential disadvantages on
those underdeveloped countries who they relied on developed nationsin a way that it cannot provide them with
lots of food because farmers just focus on only one crop. For instance, farmers
might not care about planting potential vegetables and fruits that are
important for the people’s health because they just cope for exportation
oriented as money is their main hope. This can lead people causing such
lifestyles diseases such as diabetes, obesity and many other non-communicable
diseases because they always relying on eating foreign fatty foods and meats.
Using fertilizers and pesticides in modern monocropping can actually affect the
human health in a way that they can eat such chemical vegetables and fruits.
This can affect the person’s health to get such kinds of diseases to his/her
body. Modern monocropping actually having an impact on the energy and
livelihood security as the demanded of food must be increased compared with the
amount of food production.

To conclude, monoculture having an impacts on the lives of
the people, the environment and most of all it brings such potential income to
the country. Monoculture agricultural is the new agricultural system that also
emerged in the pacific countries and having potentially disadvantages on the
land itself.